


The Right Regrets

by Anonymous



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23117938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: And what did Robert say when he saw them? Did he smile?Barristan Selmy had been badly wounded on the Trident, so he had been spared the sight of Lord Tywin’s gift, but oft he wondered.If I had seen him smile over the red ruins of Rhaegar’s children, no army on this earth could have stopped me from killing him.Barristan Selmy took less severe wounds and stood in the throne room as the corpses were laid out before the new king.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 40
Collections: Anonymous





	The Right Regrets

It took him a moment to comprehend what it was he was seeing, and when he did, he sucked in a breath and the whole world seemed to fall silent. Lord Tywin was saying something to the new king, but Ser Barristan couldn’t focus on the words, could barely even hear them as anything other than a faint whisper from a long way away.

All he could see was the triumphant glint in the man’s catlike eyes and the crimson wrapped gifts his men had laid at Robert’s feet, and the former, too, faded as weight of the latter fully dawned on him.

It was the largest of those gifts that he registered first – Princess Elia’s corpse, pale and broken, limbs twisted unnaturally and open eyes unseeing. Horrifying, but almost instantly fading to the back of his mind as the other, smaller, offerings became clear.

Princess Rhaenys, tear tracks on her cheeks visible even from a distance, silent and still and dead, the crimson cloak making it impossible to tell just what had killed her, but the smear of blood marring her chin making it obvious it had been brutal.

Prince Aegon, utterly unrecognizable, head a bloody ruin and looking even tinier in the arms of the huge armoured Lannister soldier setting him down than he always had when short, slender Elia held him.

 _Children._ Rhaegar’s children.

He looked up at the newly crowned king, desperate, praying to see the same horror he felt reflected in the eyes of the man that had led a righteous rebellion against a madman.

Instead, Robert Baratheon smiled.

Barristan Selmy drew his sword and lunged.

He was done, done, _done._

Aerys the tyrant.

Robert the murderer.

Several tried to stop him, but he didn’t even process their faces before cutting through them – they were exhausted, so many of them that they were more at risk of cutting each other to pieces than touching him, and he was faster, fueled by enough rage that he couldn’t even feel his wounds anymore.

He was Barristan the Bold, one of the finest swordsmen alive, and none of these _cowardly monsters_ was going to stop him from killing the man responsible for this.

Two Kingsguard turned Kingslayer in just as many days. Perhaps he, too, would be viewed with disgust, an oathbreaker and a murderer just like the Lannister boy.

But he had taken no oaths to Robert Baratheon. He had taken no oaths, and had he done so, he would still be right where he was, sword in hand and blinded by rage, because he’d first sworn to protect a Targaryen king’s family, and half that family lay murdered on the floor before the Iron Throne.

Someone was shouting, but the words meant nothing to him as the tip of his sword sank into Baratheon’s throat. He yanked it free and lunged for Lord Tywin. Children. _Children._

Blood bloomed red across the lord’s chest. Lannister fell. Ser Barristan’s wounded leg crumpled beneath him. They hit the ground together.

Someone had caught him in the side, he realized, and an eerie calm overtook him.

The king was dead, and his heirs, too.

The king was dead and the new king crowned, short may he reign.

The king was dead, and the kingmaker with him.

The last thing Ser Barristan saw was empty green eyes and the last thing he felt was grim satisfaction.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


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